A conventional double bearing fishing reel is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Gazette No. Sho 61-80,669, and is provided at a pair of side frames of a reel body with inner chambers, wherein the inner chamber at one side frame houses a drag mechanism having a braking member formed of asbestos or the like and a drag disc positioned opposite thereto. Such reel includes a drive mechanism for driving the spool and a cover which covers the braking member and drag disc. The cover has a through-bore into which a spool shaft is inserted, thereby preventing the braking member from getting wet due to water entering into the inner chamber at the side frame along the outer periphery of a flange at the spool.
Such conventional fishing reel has between the inner periphery of a through-bore at the cover and the outer periphery of a member at the spool shaft side an annular gap allowing the member at the spool shaft side to rotate. This creates a problem in that water entering into the inner chamber at the side frame enters into the cover through the gap to attach to the braking member or the drag disc, with resulting deterioration of the braking effect or variation in the frictional resistance at a water content portion of the braking member with respect to frictional resistance at a non-water-content portion of the same. This results in variation in the braking effect during a single revolution of the spool so that, when a fishing line is drawn out by a force larger than the braking effect, the tip of a fishing rod undergoes a vertical pulsating motion.